William burnet



i UNiTn WILLIAM BURNE'I, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

INKSTAND.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 25,175, dated August 23, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VILLIAM BURNET, of New York, in the county of New York, in the State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Inkstand.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I do hereby declare that the following' is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, and eX- plained by the description following and making a part of my specification, fully shows its nat-ure and operat-ion.

Description of Drawing.

A, A, A, is the body of the inkstand, made of rubber, the sides and top being thicker than the bottom, which from its superior elasticity I use as a flexible diaphragm.

B, B, B. is a metallic base, which encircles the rubber vessel or body, at its lower edge, forming a stand for the reservoir, and a support for the standard or upright C, C, which is used to att-ach together the cover E of the fountain D and the actuating device for raising and regulating the proper How of ink for use.

I, I, is a lever, bent at right angles, the one arm passing -through the base, B, to the center of the diaphragm or bot-tom of the rubber vessel, and the other arm passing upward, above the standard C, in which upper part is pierced a hole, to allow the jointed arm or connecting rod G, G, to pass freely through it. This right angled lever, is jointed or has its fulcrum at J.

Gr, G, is a connecting rod, attached to the cover, at L, by a joint pin. This connecting rod has a screw out on that part which passes through the lever I, and is provided with a milled edge nut H.

E, is the cover, jointed to the standard at K, the two centers K and L, being so placed relatively, that when the cover is opened, the connecting rod Gr is thrown or thrust back and the nut H pressing against the arm of the lever rocks it upon the lower joint and thus moves the lower arm of the lever upward against the diaphragm and by flexing it and compressing the air which is above the level of the ink forces it into the funnel or fountain D. Now so long as the ink is at acertain level, in the reservoir, this arrangement is operative, but when there is too much or too little ink in the vessel, the opening of the cover will either give too great a supply or not a sufficiency to the funnel D. It is to obviate this diiiiculty that I make my apparatus adjustable by the nut H and the connecting rod Gr, G. When from use the ink has become somewhat exhausted, by turning the nut H, toward the lever I, the opening of the cover will still afford an ample supply and on the contrary when the vessel is first filled by turning the nut toward the end jointed to the cover', it will supply the funnel without an overflow.

The above description of the parts and their effects is so plain that further eX- planation of them is deemed unnecessary.

I am well aware that it is notl new to raise the ink into a funnel, by means of mechanism attached to the cover, as the well known inkstand of Perry of London, by means of a small force pump attached to the cover, gave an additional amount of air in the vessel and thus caused the upward flow of the ink, but from corrosion and gumming, these inkstands soon became useless. I am aware also that it is not new to raise the ink by means of the cover passing on a eXible diaphragm, through the intervention of a cam and lever, the centers-of the cam so placed as to raise the ink, as this device was registered by George Dowlers in the English patent office Dec. 28, 1857, but the defect of this is that there is either too much or too little ink, as the main supply is either too high, or too low, and also the defect of the diaphragm soon losing its elasticity or becoming worn out by action.

I am also aware of the device of Thos. Itobjohn patented in the United States August 25, 1857, in which the cover by pressing on an intermediate lever flexed a diaphragm and thus gave a supply of ink, but here the diaphragm soon loses its elasticity and becomes inoperative, and has also the defect of being operative only within narrow limits, as when the ink is too low it ceases to fill the funnel, making a new supply often necessary. I am also aware of the patent of Stephen Perry, in which the flexible bottom of an inkstand pressed upward by means of a lever and screw furnished the supply. But neither these nor any other devices furnish any means of adjustment between the operating parts, so that their action in furnishing the supply to the funof an inkstand, so that at Whatever height (above the lower oriice of the funnel) the ink in the main reservoir may be, there shall always be a sufficiency and never an over- 15 flow in the funnel on opening the ink'stand cover.

WILLIAM BURNET.

Vitnesses:

E. FRANCIS CoREY, Jr., IV. L. BATTERsoN. 

